£1000 Challenge
CCW’s resident TV reviewer finally gets his hands on our Robin – more than a year after hassling David for it
Reliant Robin
1990 RELIANT ROBIN THE STORY SO FAR Miles driven 15 Total mileage 64,434 What’s gone wrong Nothing per se. Except the speedoÉ
DAVID SIMISTER Fair play to Murray Scullion, the man behind CCW’s regular Classics on TV reviews and, to those of you with longer memories, our MX-5-loving former newshound. He’s been itching for a go in our £600 Reliant Robin ever since we bought it – and his efforts has finally paid off.
His initial attempts to get behind its deep-dish steering wheel were thwarted by the discovery of its rotten front crossmember and subsequent six-month rebuild – and every time he’s asked since it’s always been firmly in the grasp of either me or managing editor James.
Even getting a job down in London wasn’t enough to put him off asking. He simply got another one, on our sister magazine Parkers, which meant he was within striking distance of the Robin’s keys the instant once of us had finished using it.
With that sort of persistence, it’d be rude not to let him finally fire up its 850cc engine, even though the broken speedo ( CCW, 24 July) is still firmly on the to-do list.
Over to you, Murray…
MURRAY SCULLION It’s the second-hottest day on record in the UK. I open the door to the Reliant, dip into the low seat, burn my hand on the steering wheel, pull the choke out just a little bit, and finally, slide the key into the ignition. It fires into life first time. It’s already hotter than hell.
There’s smoke coming out of the centre console, which coincidentally doesn’t fit well, so it juts out of place when you pull the choke out. ‘That’s fine,’ says David Simister’s lips. His eyes say different.
Out he hops, and in comes features editor Chris Hope. He seems nonplussed by it all, so I sling it into reverse and get moving. I select first and we make it successfully out of the office car park. Huzzah.
The first thing that hits me is how genuinely good the gearbox is. It’s a short-throw affair, and it takes two movements. The first gets it half way as a sort of ‘I’d like to change gear now’ and the second movement is a ‘yes I’m sure’ movement.
This is my first experience in a three-wheeler and it ticks off a large box on my automotive bucket list. First impressions are just how peppy it is – 0-15mph is dispatched pretty easily, and the 848cc engine has a wonderful noise. It sounds slightly agricultural, but busy too.
We’re off to Starbucks to get some fashionable iced coffee. Standing in our way is the Robin’s arch nemesis, a roundabout. I couldn’t believe quite how much lock was required to make it round; it really is a two-hand job. 60mph is achieved without too much fuss via a dual carriageway – although admittedly the dial is registering a bit fat zero. The temperature is no longer hotter than hell, and is in fact, at least one billion degrees.
The ride’s respectable on OK roads below 30mph. But there’s no escaping the lack of rubber and damping at the front compared to a car with four-wheels when you take on large potholes and bumps.
We get to Starbucks, without tipping over even once. When we arrive it occurs to me that people really love the little Robin. I even saw people pointing and smiling. Like all good classics, the Robin is a talking point, which is much more than we can say about a modern dross like a Kia Picanto.
Chris and I return to CCW towers. We both have sweat dripping from us. Told you it was hot.